Undercover agent William L. Queen came out of hiding Wednesday to accept the Federal Bar Assn.'s annual Medal of Valor award for showing "exceptional skill and dedication" in Southern California. Queen, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, had been hiding since May, when his secret role within the Mongols motorcycle gang ended with the arrest of some of the group's top members.

An accused murderer on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list was arrested in San Diego on Monday after a citizen recognized him from an FBI poster in a local post office and called the agency. Brian Patrick Malverty, 26, wanted in connection with two apparently drug-related shootings in Georgia, was arrested at 7:50 a.m. Monday at an apartment on Regents Road.

July 25, 1995 | DAVID WILLMAN and GLENN F. BUNTING, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

An undercover federal agent who spoke with cult leader David Koresh less than an hour before agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms launched their disastrous raid on his sect's compound near Waco, Tex., said Monday that he warned his boss that Koresh had been tipped off.

Re " 'Do you know who I am?' " editorial, Jan. 22 I fail to see the big deal in holding a badge that is only provided in return for political favors. Other than the examples of misuse you cited, what does one do with such a badge? I carried a real badge and credentials for most of the 28 years I served as a special agent for a branch of the Department of Defense, and if I wasn't on official business, both remained in my desk at the office. I suggest that if a badge is given out, it be encased in Lucite and accompanied by a suitably inscribed plaque for open display.

The body of a young, 20-foot Pacific gray whale was discovered entangled in a gill net about a quarter-mile off the Palos Verdes coast, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. "We are attempting to determine the owner of the net," said Charles Clark, a special agent for the fisheries service. Since the Pacific gray whale is an endangered species, the owner of the net could face criminal or civil sanctions, Clark said.

The U.S. Customs Service on Friday fined Avianca, the Colombian national airline, $4.7 million after 293 pounds of cocaine were discovered in a shipment of flowers, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent said. The drug was found Thursday in four of 2,500 cartons of roses and carnations, special agent Jack Hook said. Customs agents at Miami International Airport check flower shipments by pushing probing rods through the boxes.